Australian navy recruits 'forced to rape each other' during initiation rituals

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Australian navy recruits were subjected to horrific abuse as a “rite of passage” including being forced to rape each other and to undergo violent initiation rituals which left some teenage cadets unconscious, a royal commission into child sex abuse has heard.

Former navy personnel outlined decades of disturbing abuse and cover-ups, including practices such as “blackballing”, which involved their genitals being smeared with shoe polish, or a “royal flush”, which involved flushing people’s heads in a toilet after it had been used. Victims who complained were told to “suck it up … it will make a man of you".

The commission heard from a former navy member who said he was often “snatched” in the middle of the night and dragged to a sports oval, where he was subject to repeated sexual abuse and rape involving other recruits.

Graeme Frazer, a former recruit who joined the navy as a 16-year-old, told the commission he was left unconscious after being forced to run down a corridor called the "gauntlet" while being hit with sacks filled with irons, boots and other items.

He said he was told the abuse was a “rite of passage in the real navy,” adding that the commission was "a symbolic day that marks the end of 49 years of torment".

The commission heard that a 30-year-old instructor had a sexual relationship with Eleanore Tibble, a 15-year-old cadet, who was then threatened with a dishonourable discharge for “fraternisation”. She took her own life in 2000 at age 16.

The commission was launched in 2012 and has heard horrific accounts of abuse across the country at religious institutions, schools, children’s homes, sporting and community organisations and charities such as the Salvation Army.

Hearings this week began focusing on the Australian military and will investigate the existing cadets program, which has about 25,000 active members.